Research summary
Chronic pain affects more than eight million Canadians and remains difficult to diagnose and treat effectively. Increasing evidence suggests that interactions between the nervous and immune systems play a critical role in driving pain. As Canada Research Chair in Pain Neuroimmunology, Dr. Emerson Krock is investigating these neuroimmune interactions to develop new diagnostic tools and to repurpose existing immunomodulatory drugs to alleviate chronic pain.
He and his research team are exploring how cross-reactivity between the gut microbiome and immune system may trigger pain-inducing autoantibodies in fibromyalgia. They are also studying how immune-mediated changes to the extracellular matrix in the dorsal root ganglia (located near the spinal cord) contribute to chronic pain, particularly after chemotherapy. Using advanced techniques such as germ-free mouse models, flow cytometry and machine vision analysis, Krock and his team are exploring the biological pathways that underlie chronic pain in order to improve treatment and diagnosis options for sufferers.